Shoppers, visitors and residents who give their views about Bury St Edmunds town centre could be in with a chance of winning a £50 voucher prize. The shopping vouchers are being offered in a prize draw linked to an annual survey to find out what people think of the town centre and all it has to offer.

The information gathered in the study will be used by the Business Improvement District (BID) to help improve the town centre in areas where any concerns are raised. The simple online survey, which takes only minutes to complete, has been commissioned by the BID organisation Our Bury St Edmunds to find out what people really want from the town centre – but equally importantly to establish why those who don’t visit, choose to go elsewhere.

Our Bury St Edmunds Chief Executive Mark Cordell said: “Over the eight years that we have run this survey we have seen some recurring themes in the answers that we get and that’s really helpful. For example the food and drink offering that we have in the town centre always rates highly and a very high percentage say they would recommend a visit to the town to others. It also means we can tweak the survey to dig deeper on subjects that more frequently get mentioned when we ask for views on areas needing improvement.

“This annual survey is a key indicator of how the town is performing and any improvements that can be made, either directly by the Our Bury St Edmunds team or by working with partner agencies. Yes, the town has been highlighted recently by a national newspaper as one of the best places to live, but that shouldn’t make us complacent and we still need to know what

people think on a day to day basis.”

The research is being carried out by People and Places, an organisation which helps small towns with information and advice on best practice to face the challenges from bigger cities or out of town shopping. Participants can opt in to a prize draw at the end of the questionnaire, with a chance to win one of three £50 vouchers to spend with a town centre business.

The study can be found at www.ourburystedmunds.com and it will remain open until the end of May.